Embodiments herein generally relate to social networking sites and more particularly relate to computerized systems and methods that automate activity postings to social networking web sites simply through the ordinary use of media and status capturing devices, such as GPS-enabled or other location tracking mobile devices, including phones, cameras, etc.
Conventionally, for one to upload picture-based activity postings to social networking web sites, the user (social networker) is required to take or record picture, audio, and/or video; save such items to a file; and then perform additional steps to upload such items to their social network pages, chat rooms, etc. During such a process, the user can also add textual remarks or tags describing such uploaded items.
Many conventional portable electronic devices (cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDA's), cameras, etc.) have geographic positioning features, such as global positioning system (GPS) receivers and other systems. These can record the time, date, and location (geographic position) of the user simultaneously while recording the audio, video, or pictures. Such time, date, and location information can be recorded as meta-data with the stored audio, video, or pictures.
However, it is often cumbersome and time consuming to the social networker to coalesce electronic output such as audio, video, or picture files, then to edit or annotate the content, and then upload the content to social networking web sites. Therefore, many people do not interrupt their current activities to constantly update their social networking web sites with every current activity as they visit points of interest. Also, many people only periodically update their social networking sites at certain times (such as in the evening, after recording many such pictures, video, etc., previously during the day).
The embodiments herein address such obstacles to keeping social networking sites constantly updated by providing automated computerized systems and methods that automate activity postings to social networking web sites simply through the ordinary use of media and status capturing devices, such as GPS enabled cell phones, cameras, microphones, etc. With the embodiments herein, the user (social networker) merely needs to be identified by a portable device in their possession and their social networking sites will automatically be updated with media content and textual descriptions of the user's location and activities, without requiring any input from the user. Further, if the point of interest employee or user takes or records audio, video, pictures, etc., such items will also be uploaded and automated text will be appended to such items, without any additional input from the user.
More specifically, one such embodiment herein utilizes a computer-readable storage medium that maintains at least one “point of interest” data file. A portable electronic device that has a geographic positioning feature, is in communication with a computerized processor and automatically identifies the location of the user.
The computerized processor (which is in communication with the computer-readable storage medium) automatically compares the current user location with the point of interest data file to identify whether the user is located close to (e.g., within a second predetermined distance of) a point of interest maintained within the point of interest data file. If the user is close to such a point of interest, the computerized processor automatically creates a user status data file. The user status data file comprises data identifying that the user is currently at the point of interest. The computerized processor then automatically uploads the user status data file to a social networking web site associated with the user as an activity post associated with the user.
The computer-readable storage medium can also maintain at least one textual data file comprising predetermined textual descriptions of the points of interest maintained within the point of interest data file. The computerized processor can optionally automatically merge the predetermined textual descriptions of the points of interest with the name (or some other identification) of the user to produce a unique string of text describing the user at the point of interest. The computerized processor can automatically add this unique string of text to the user status data file.
The portable electronic device (camera, cell phone, etc.) can capture video, still pictures, and/or audio simultaneously while identifying the current user's location if the user activates the appropriate capture buttons on the device. The computerized processor can also automatically add the video, still pictures, audio, etc., to the user status data file. Therefore, by simply carrying the portable device, or by taking pictures, audio, or video with the portable device, the user's social networking page(s) can be automatically updated, without requiring any additional input from the user. This reduces the cumbersome nature of conventional systems and allows users to more frequently update their social networking sites and to update their social networking sites in real time, without any additional effort.
These and other features are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description.